Yes, indeedy, it was warm yesterday. But lovely.
Unfinished business. A late arriving picture of the dinner with Art, Wally, Mariah and Mar...
A good picture, no?
Mar also passed on this picture of our favourite desert visitors, the road runners (the ducks who swim in our pool are Fred and Ethel, there are Ozzie and Harriet).....
....and yes, he has a better camera than mine, not to mention more patience....
Okay, back to the daily activities. I had read about a "vintage market" held in the parking lot of the Camelot Theater the first Sunday of every month, and decided to check it out on Sunday, March 6. I don't need to do it again. Just a high class garage sale, really. While some of the stuff was mid-century modern, and therefore nice by definition, since moving I have no desire to collect more "stuff". Twenty minutes of that was enough. Then off to something more classy, the La Quinta Art Fair.
It bills itself as the biggest art fair in the world. It is not, I am sure, but it is held in a lovely park in La Quinta, with lakes and fountains and lots of elegant people looking at works of art. So I spent a few hours there browsing. And no, I didn't buy anything. Were I to buy anything, I would have to find someone to buy me a house big enough to hold the artwork. I did buy a hand made hat, though. (I needed another hat. Not!!!)
All of which still left me enough time to go to the movies. The National Theater of London has taken to filming their matinees - I think I've mentioned - and the current play on offer was The Hangman. Not the world's best play, but well acted, and I was glad to have seen it. Quintessentially British, for sure!
So, the following week was my "take care of yourself so your friends don't nag you" week. My Medicare supplement plan provides a free "wellness" exam every year, including a mental and physical exam, the whole panoply of blood tests, an EKG, etc. The results are in. Apparently, barring being hit by a truck, I will be around to annoy you for another while!
My neighbors twisted my arm to go to Monday night Bingo at our complex.
It wasn't a big crowd, but at least a few neighbors who I don't usually see, and reasonably enjoyable for a mindless occupation.
I've mentioned the Osher School of Life Long Learning; I've taken a number of their six-week courses. They are trying something new this year, one-off lectures, community related, and free. The first I attended was a guided walk around Palm Desert Civic Park to see the public art.
The park also has its own little Holocaust Memorial.....
.... and, of course, some frivolous stuff too.....
There were about 20 of us, and a well-spent couple of hours in the sunshine it was...
The next day was a lecture of Desert history of a different sort. Frank DiSalvo (I could be wrong about the spelling) is a musician and singer, and does - well, I wouldn't say imitations, let's say interpretations - of the old 50's crooners, Frank Sinatra, Bobby Darren, etc.
He ended up in a bar (or should I say lounge...) in the Indian Wells Resort, and has been there for 20 plus years. We heard his history, and, of course, a number of songs. I loved it, and will have to take upcoming visitors there for a drink or dinner (the menus are as retro as you might imagine, and you all know how much I love retro).
Well, from the ridiculous to the sublime. That same Wednesday, I met friends Geoff and Marvin for dinner at Thai Smile (yes, I know, I don't do ethnic in the desert, but I made an exception, and it was, indeed, quite good) and the encore performance of Manon Lascoux. Yes, I know I had seen it the previous Saturday, but it was lovely, even better the second time, as a good opera should be.
Thursday, I took neighbor Michael for a belated birthday brunch...
He looks pretty good for 71, no? He requested Tyler's, a downtown hamburger joint and a fixture of Palm Springs, where I had never been. I am not a hamburger type person, but these were good (two thumbs up for this place, keep it on your list). Even found some friends from my gym class also enjoying the fare...
After lunch we went to see Lady in the Van. I thought it an odd movie, in spite of Maggie Smith's usual stellar performance. It was interesting mainly because I know Alan Bennett's plays (he's the man who befriends the lady in the van). It is another of those movies under the category of "I'm not sorry to have seen it, but, well, meh!)
Saturday, I played bridge with Darren (he calls me his Saturday Girl), but then did something different. He invited me to lunch at SeBon, a Belgian Restaurant near his place....
It was quite nice, really, an interesting menu and pleasant spot (even though it is in a mall - as are a lot of good places around here). I will go back again. It was also nice to get to know Darren a bit better. He was feeling needy, I think. He had a heart attack at the bridge table a few weeks ago ( a month shy of his 52nd birthday!), was rushed to surgery, had a stint put in, etc . He will be fine - just a wake up call, I think - but he is still shaken!
On Saturday night, our complex had our St. Pattie's Day "do".
There were 52 people, the food was great (although I am not a big corned beef and cabbage fan), and, as you can tell, a good time was had by all.
Last week was the usual round of the gym, zumba and bridge, with the usual round of suspects, as well as the pool, of course. I was meant to go to a Bruce Springsteen concert with Hank in LA on Thursday, but couldn't make it, a health issue (not mine, suffice it to say that the phrase carpe diem comes to mind).
Probably just as well. Truth be told, I had been dreading it. Yes, Bruce still gives a great concert, and yes, each one is different. But really, not that different. As well, I was dreading the drive to LA, and the usually mess of getting wrist bands for standing on the floor, and waiting for the possible admittance to the Pit. And then there would be the standing itself. No, I think I am done with Bruce Springsteen. but for my CD's! Been there, done that, time for something new. (I'm sure I will get ongoing reviews from Hank, who never seems to outgrow anything.)
On Friday, I started a new Osher class, this one on documentary film making. No, I have no intention of changing careers. It just sounded interesting, and everything having to do with the movies is fascinating to me. And there is always so much that I don't know, or, more to the point, have never even thought about. For example, it is self evident - now - that the increase in documentaries in the 50's had to do with the technology of lighter, better cameras and synchronized sound, etc. I just never thought about it before. Or, the difference between cinema verite and direct film, something I had't given much thought to. And, of course, we get to see movies. Just four classes, but it looks to be good.
The week ended.with yet another St. Pattie's day party, this time given by Dorothy, another member of our bridge group. She has a lovely place right in Palm Springs....
Here's Dorothy, our illustrious hostess, with Howard, the leader of our gym class...
... as, usual, too much food (this wasn't even the half of it)...
...not to mention music. He played all the oldies but goodies, and there was singing, and dancing...
...and here I am, observing the action.....
It is nice to see everyone with their "street clothes" on (we do clean up well, don't we?), and to get to know them a bit more than you can while doing weights and stretches (although we certainly talk enough then.... It is a really good group, well read and well lived, so to speak. A great party!
Well, the week wasn't quite over. Friend Dru has been here for a month (from Vancouver) and we had yet to connect. So, we met for happy hour and dinner at Trilusa, my favourite (current) local Italian. The bar is great, with good wine (Pinot Grigio my current favourite in that department) with a good pour at happy hour prices (Canadians, eat your hearts out), good (retro) music, a straight - and always happy and sociable - clientele, and good food at half the restaurant price.
Needless to say, we nattered away for hours, and had a great time.
And so we come to today, Sunday. A little bit different today. I wasn't in the mood for the newspaper (amazing as it may seem, the world continues to turn without my being aware of every revolution, and if something momentous happens, I will hear about it, trust me.) Besides, I went to the Palm Springs Library (as I often do), and found so many books that I will have to read non-stop (between other activities, of course) to finish them all. I finished Devil in the White City since I last spoke to you. Yes, I know, I was supposed to go on to reading about the building of the Trans- Siberian Railway, but I wasn't in the mood.
So instead I read Amy Tan's The Kitchen God's Wife. I have read others by her, and there is a sameness of them. I mean, this is a woman who has real mother issues. However, here books are always good reads nonetheless, and she takes you right into the heart and soul of her Chinese characters, particularly the women.
And then (and this is the real reason not to get the paper(s) today - I started a book by Alaa Al A'swany, called The Automobile Club of Egypt. Talk about being taken to a different place. He is being called the heir to Naguib Mahfouz (another Eqyptian, winner of the Nobel Prize for literature, who wrote The Sugar Street trilogy, which I read a number of years ago and loved) and I can see why. It is a doorstop of a book, but a page turner.
So now, I will fix myself some breakfast and get back to it. Until it is time to switch to a paperback at the pool, of course....
I know, I know, if I wrote more often, I wouldn't have to write so much at once.....
